Dear Akamori Enterprise Employees,
The year is almost over - and with this short news announcement, I’d like to share what happened in December and what to expect next year. So please, as this post will be fairly short, there’s no need to prepare a cup of coffee.
Multiplayer Development
As announced in the last update, multiplayer development is currently in full swing. Unsurprisingly, it comes with a fair share of unexpected hurdles. Like in basically every multiplayer game, players expect to see their fellow teammates in-game - moving around, jumping, running from monsters, using voice chat, and shredding stuff.
The fundamentals of this are already working. However, the game also requires some rather unconventional mechanics, which demand additional research and development time.
To give a brief overview: players should be able to join locally hosted servers before the game starts. The host can then start the session for all connected players. While the game is running, players should also be able to connect, leave, and rejoin at any time - primarily to handle disconnects gracefully.
This requires the game loop to be split into multiple stages, each with its own networking rules and responsibilities. Without going too deep into technical details: this is a substantial amount of work, and it requires extensive testing and validation.
The Face of the echoes
Up until now, the “main character” consisted of little more than a pair of hands floating in front of a camera. For a pure first-person singleplayer experience, this works surprisingly well. For multiplayer, however, displaying your teammates as disembodied hands drifting through the environment is… less ideal.
This is why we need a proper 3D character - complete with animations, textures, and an identity.
The character is currently in active development. It’s not finished yet, but I’d like to show you a small sneak peek.
The goal is to create a look that fits the environment. The echoes explore cold, desolate places and are primarily there to do a job, so the design favors usability and necessity over fashion.
At the same time, I’m aiming for a cold, manufactured feeling. Since we’re still in the modeling phase, much of this isn’t fully visible yet - but I wanted to share how the character looks during development.
As an additional note: the head is planned to be as separate from the body as possible to support modding. Helmets - and potentially hats - are a great way to add individual touches to your character. First and foremost, there will be unlockable in-game variants, with modding support serving as the extra cherry on top.
And that's basically it for December!
Development slowed down a little so I could recharge my mental batteries. This year was fairly harsh, and taking some time off was genuinely necessary. That said, work never fully dropped to zero, which is why there’s still some progress to show.
In January, development will continue at full force. A wider social media presence is also planned, so expect more videos across various platforms. I’ll go into more detail on that in the January development update.
Until then: enjoy the upcoming year, stay tuned, and take care of yourselves.